


The First Time Since...

by silvergreycrow



Category: Naruto
Genre: Afterlife, Confession, Crying, Death, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, ItaShi, ShiIta, Uchiha Itachi - Freeform, failed promises, itachi died, maybe heaven, maybe not, meeting somewhere, shiita as a friendship, uchiha mass, uchiha shisui - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 21:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18600001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvergreycrow/pseuds/silvergreycrow
Summary: After the Uchiha brothers' fight, Itachi wakes up and meets with someone from the past in a strange place."The distance between them was rapidly decreasing when Itachi moved for the first time since he’d noticed his friend. The only thing he was capable of doing was dropping his head and turning his gaze downwards."





	The First Time Since...

_Darkness. Silence. Nothing at all._

 

Itachi’s lashes fluttered as he slowly opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He was laying on his back, the only thing he could see was the gently glowing light far, far above him. His thoughts, like racehorses, covered with salty sweat, were galloping around his mind, but he couldn’t tell where he was.

When he broke the strange place’s tranquillity as he made his first movement, Sharingan-observed, crystal clear memories flashed before his eyes.   
He’d fought Sasuke.   
He’d sealed Orochimaru.  
He reached his goals. He died as a traitor, he died before his brother’s eyes.

_I’m dead. Finally._

Itachi sat up and he came to the realization: he was lying on the floor here as his corpse must have lied on the ground, before the broken wall, with the Uchiha crest on it. But he didn’t remember. The last picture of his life was the face of his most beloved person. Itachi smiled.

In this space of nil, Itachi looked around, trying to make sense of where he could have been. Intelligent gaze scanned the uncanny world but only the soft light broke the darkness which surrounded everything. The idea of heaven slightly touched Itachi’s mind but he rebutted it right away. After what he’d done he wasn’t going to a pleasant place, he was certain.

The Uchiha slowly stood up and he knew something was off. He had no idea what, but the genius of his era was sure that something just wasn’t right.   
Something didn’t  _feel right_.

In the loneliness of the empty place, complete theories like thoughts popped into his mind and Itachi was running through them, refuting in order. His senses sharpened, he was focusing on his breathing as the centre of his present self when…  
His breathing…

Itachi took a huge breath with widening eyes as  _there was no pain._

He couldn’t tell when the last time was when he didn’t have to force air into his damaged lungs. When he didn’t have to fight off the feeling that he could suffocate at any moment. When he wasn’t coughing up blood after a decent, deep breath. When…

There were too many  _whens._

Just existing without constant suffering was so new for Itachi that he started to feel the long-forgotten hotness in his eyes. He blinked to fight his tears back when he first noticed the approaching figure. His vision became a lot better as well - because before his death he wouldn’t have been able to notice the man from this distance.   
However, Itachi didn’t need his eyes to know who was coming nearer and nearer with every step he made.  
_Shisui…_

The long-dead Uchiha, Itachi’s best friend, his only friend, the last keeper of his sanity, the person who always stood with him, who even after death was the most stable pillar of his values, who made him a better person than he was, whom Itachi could thank so so much… 

Uchiha Shisui, whom Itachi gave his word. He’d said he will solve the situation. He’d told an empty promise but couldn’t tell Shisui how much he loved him. He’d just stood there in silence, his friend’s left eye in his hand and he’d listened. 

As Itachi couldn’t say anything on the cliff above the Nakano, the same way he wasn’t able to keep his promise. And he not only just failed his word of honour but he did the opposite. He’d annihilated their clan and became a criminal.   
As he couldn’t do anything he’d pledged, he couldn’t face Shisui here. Or anywhere.

With feet rooted to the ground, Itachi just stood still as Shisui came closer. He wasn’t able to move or to say anything, he just watched the light, kind smile on his friend’s face with a hardly-maintained neutral expression. 

“Hey, Itachi,” Shisui said, tilting his head a little. His dark eyes radiated warmth as they always did.

Itachi wanted to say a thousand things. He wanted to tell Shisui what he’d done, he wanted to apologise. He just wanted to  _speak_  with him, to believe that he was actually there in front of him. But Itachi just stood steadily with a stiff gaze, in silence. 

The distance between them was rapidly decreasing when Itachi moved for the first time since he’d noticed his friend. The only thing he was capable of doing was dropping his head and turning his gaze downwards. He wanted to be near Shisui more than anything, but even the possibility of his friend’s disappointment and anger towards him made his soul decay.

After Itachi tore his gaze away from him, Shisui stopped, leaving a faint distance, hardly more than an arm’s length.

“What, ‘Tachi?” Shisui tasted the name for a moment. “Did I leave you speechless?” With eyes beaming, he was teasing kindly.

 _"Oh, Shisui”,_  Itachi thought as he raised his sight from the ground to Shisui’s chest, although he still couldn’t look him in the eye.   
At that moment, he felt he will never be able to.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and please review!


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